ENS US Navy, Anita Davalos Acuna 

Anita Davalos Acuna received her nursing training at Hotel Dieu Hospital in El Paso, Texas. ¹, ² She enlisted as a U.S. Navy Ensign in March 1945, serving for 14 months at the Naval Hospital in San Diego, California. ¹, ³  She was one of 500 nurses quartered in the former hospital library. ¹ Davalos Acuna recalled that wounded that were flown in would be laid on the hospital grounds waiting to be sent to different units. ¹ She was discharged on August 20, 1946. ⁴ 

Davalos Acuna was born on November 20, 1921, to Augustin Davalos and Magdalena Little in El Cañon del Nogal in Bent, New Mexico. ⁵ She was the second of nine siblings. She grew up during the Great Depression on the family farm. ⁵ When her mother passed away in 1943, Davalos Acuna raised her four younger siblings, Maria, Helen, Gilbert, and Rosalie in Silver City, New Mexico. ⁵ As a young girl, Davalos Acuna wanted to be a flight attendant. ¹, ⁵ Davalos Acuna later went into nursing because at the time, flight attendants were required to be registered nurses. ¹ 

Following her Navy career, Davalos Acuna entered the civil service and was assigned to duty at the Mescalero Hospital. While in Mescalero, she also began taking flying lessons and was the first woman to land a plane in Douglas, Arizona. ², ⁵ She also worked as a nurse at the Indian Hospital in Sells, New Mexico, as a surgical nurse at Hillcrest Hospital in Silver City, New Mexico, and at the Fort Bayard Veterans Hospital in New Mexico. ⁵ She enjoyed a 19-year career as a registered nurse. In her mid-40s Davalos Acuna was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis leading her to retire from nursing. ¹, ⁵  

While living in Silver City she met Levi G. Acuna, and they married in 1956. They were married for 50 years and had four daughters, Caryl, Elizabeth, Katherine, and Theresa, raising them in both New Mexico and Arizona. ⁵